Ferndale vet gets Purple Heart 42 years later

FERNDALE —More than 40 years after he was gravely wounded in a mortar explosion in Vietnam, Tom Ducharme received a Purple Heart medal for his sacrifice from U.S. Sen. Carl Levin.

Ducharme accepted the long-delayed recognition in a ceremony Friday outside the Ferndale Elks Lodge withbagpipes and an honor guard that was attended by more than 100 fellow veterans, friends and relatives.

His wife, Jeanmarie, and their boys Matt, 9, and Jack, 7, watched as Ducharme quietly accepted the recognition for the many wounds he suffered July 10, 1970 during his U.S. Army service.

Levin recalled the divide in the country over the Vietnam War. Unlike veterans of other wars, Vietnam vets often received no hero’s welcome or thanks for their service when they returned home.

“We just wonder how people can be as heroic as they are,” Levin said of Ducharme and other veterans. “Never, ever, ever again will this country not support the troops of this country.”

Ducharme was drafted in December 1969 and became an artillery specialist corporal.

To this day, he has no recollection of how he was wounded when his six-man unit was hit in an attack near the Cambodian border.

There was a hole the size of silver dollar in his chest that cost him one lung. His right hand and the left side of his face were severely damaged. He lost his right index finger and underwent multiple skin grafts and other surgeries.

Ducharme remembers being evacuated in a helicopter and spending 10 months in the hospital, with many return hospitalizations over the following two years.

“I was operated on 60 times,” he said. “I was out of it for a long time.”

Returning troops back then were advised to take their uniforms off when they got home to avoid harassment, even though their short military haircuts still made them stand out, Ducharme said.

Ducharme, like many vets from his era, said he doesn’t know why he failed to receive the Purple Heart years ago after he was wounded in battle. Time passed and he didn’t think about the medal.

Then one day his family asked him about it.

He had married in 1996 and six years ago he and his wife adopted their two boys.

“They asked me what I had gotten for all this,” he said referring to his wounds. “I told them, ‘Nothing, really.’”

That’s when he decided to inquire about getting the medal.

“A year ago I went through the (Veterans Administration) when I was applying for my retirement and filled out the paperwork,” for the medal, Ducharme said.

When he got a response by mail several months ago he was afraid to open the letter telling him he was to get the Purple Heart.

“It means a lot,” he said.The medal means something to his family, too.

“I’m so proud he’s got it and is finally being recognized,” his wife said.